The invention relates to printers and computer networks. More particularly, the invention relates to displaying selected print features for a document selected for printing.
The increased capabilities found within modern printer systems require increased sophistication in the commands that are sent to the printer in order to effectuate desired print options. In turn, the user has a larger number of options to select from in composing a document to be printed. As a result, the need to be able to organize and to display printer options in a compact, organized, informative and user-friendly fashion has grown dramatically.
Typically, a print job is sent to a printer, and the user is provided with a status dialog box. The printing software carries out preliminary processing of the print job in order to be able to send formatted pages from the print job to the printer. While the print job is being processed, the software displays the status of the print job in the status dialog box. While the status is being displayed, the user has the options of letting the printing software continue to process the print job without intervention, canceling the print job or suspending the print job temporarily while the user reviews or modifies various printing options.
Some modern printers include double-sided or duplex printing in addition to single-sided or simplex printing as an option. When the print options include duplex printing in addition to simplex printing, it is necessary to distinguish between those binding options that are possible for duplex printing.
A first binding option is called xe2x80x9clong edgexe2x80x9d binding and corresponds to a document having pages or leaves that are secured together along the long edge of the leaves. In order for text to flow correctly when long edge binding is desired together with portrait mode printing, the printing on both sides of the page is oriented so that the top of the leaf for one side is the same as the top of the leaf for the other side.
A second binding option is called xe2x80x9cshort edgexe2x80x9d binding and corresponds to a document having leaves that are secured together along the short edge of the leaves. In order for text to flow correctly when short edge binding is desired together with portrait mode printing, the printing on the front (or odd-numbered) side of the leaf is oriented so that the top of the leaf for the front side is also the bottom of the leaf for the reverse side. Thus, selecting the wrong binding option will cause the back, reverse or even-numbered side of the page to be upside down relative to the front, obverse or odd-numbered side of the page when the document pages are turned in the way that the user had intended.
Traditional graphics displays provide a print preview image of the document being printed. In order to indicate that the reverse side is not blank, these displays rely on creative techniques using graphical ornaments, such as showing a xe2x80x9cdog-earedxe2x80x9d corner, or a binding device such as a spiral wire binding, staples or a loose-leaf binder. However, these solutions do not actually show what is on the other side of the page, and they may not provide a clear indication of the binding option. Another approach is to show two static images side-by-side, where one image represents the obverse side of the page and the other image represents the reverse side of the page. However, this type of static display fails to show how the page was turned to go from the one image to the other.
What is needed is a way to provide a two-dimensional display that clearly communicates to a user how a duplex print job is being printed.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method of displaying a print preview image conveying information describing a relationship between matter to be printed on a first side of a page and matter to be printed on a second side of the page includes displaying a print preview image of a page to be printed and displaying, together with the print preview image, an icon providing an indication of which binding option has been selected for a document that includes the page.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an article of manufacture includes a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein to cause a display to display information describing a relationship between matter to be printed on a first side of a page and matter to be printed on a second side of the page. The computer readable program code in the article of manufacture is configured to display, in the graphical user interface, a print preview image of the page to be printed and to display, together with the print preview image, an icon providing an indication of which binding option has been selected for a document that includes the page.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a computer implemented printer control system includes memory configured to provide an operating system and operative to store files representing at least one document to be printed and a display configured to provide an image of a graphical user interface in a viewing window. The graphical user interface is configured to convey information describing a relationship between matter to be printed on a first side of a page and matter to be printed on a second side of the page. The system also includes processing circuitry configured to display, in the graphical user interface, a print preview image of the page to be printed and to display, together with the print preview image, an icon providing an indication of which binding option has been selected for a document that includes the page.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims and drawings.